Painful Moments
by Molly the Writer
Summary: Everyone goes through pain on the island. But how much will they go through until it tears them apart?
1. Chapter 1

Melissa was sitting out on the beach, letting the lapping waves gently splash against her bare feet. She was zoned out, basically. Thinking about the life back home, with all her friends and family, and about school, was all she did anymore. After 5 months on the island, Melissa wasn't very strong about things, and would just sit away from everyone else and watch them fight and yell at each other. Melissa lost any thought of them being a family, especially after they spilt up, and even though the adventurous group returned, she didn't believe they were understanding or together like before, and she lost hope of going home. Melissa always lied down on the beach alone, and cries her eyes out. The group has yet to question her when she returns to the worn out fire pit, which was destroyed in another horrible storm. They knew she was having issues when Melissa's eyes were red and puffy.

The rest of the group also changed drastically. Daley resigned as leader a week after they returned. She had control of Nathan, Taylor, Lex and herself. Three people were easy to handle. One order got everybody doing something, cutting trees, collecting firewood, creating a fire or fishing, which Taylor took over when Jackson left. Daley didn't need to yell, or panic over any decisions. It was a snap of the fingers, and everything worked out. But when the others returned, Daley wasn't used to it after 3 months without them. They filed in one by one and started making there own decisions again. Fights broke out, and before you knew it, they were back to normal, or whatever normal was. They lost the tent, food started running out, and things were lost and stolen. When Daley realized no one was listening, she screamed until everyone was paying attention. "I quit!" She screamed, and ran into the forest crying. Then more "war" broke out and it all fell apart, worse than ever.

Nathan changed a little bit. Being strong from the beginning, he took every skill and amount of energy into keeping the three of them alive. Nathan climbed a coconut tree two times the size of the first one he climbed, getting 30 or even 40 coconuts, and fruit by the dozen. Nathan would often go deep into the forest, and collect so much food it would last for weeks at times. He would come back covered in dirt, completely wiped out, but would only rest for a minute before starting something new. Being the only _real _guy there, almost everything depended on him, or he thought that at least. Nathan also decided not to date or show any affection toward her, because he needed to put him energy in everything else. He would also sleep on the sand so the ladies and Lex had more room in the tent. A lot of things changed in those 3 months, and the storm affected a lot too. It destroyed the shelter, and the plane tipped over onto the side where the door was blocked, so it just took up room, because it was too heavy to lift. But Nathan took everything to the next level, and worked very hard. They might not have still been there without him.

But Taylor was amazing. Wow, did she change! Taylor was in another shock mode for a few days, but when it came into realization that the others had left, she took a breath and moved on. Taylor sat by the fire, and would occasionally stare into the flames and flashback at her other life. Such a good life she had, with so many friends, trips, and adventures. Now she was taking on a whole different world, dealing with nothing she ever had to deal with before. But Taylor shook off the lost feelings and started working. She fished as her job, because she wasn't good at anything else. But Taylor didn't complain, or cry, nothing. Just fish, and watch over Nathan as he climbed up the 100 ft coconut trees. Taylor would comfort Daley at times though, with words like, "they're alive, they'll comeback," even know she didn't believe it herself. Taylor did change though, because she never whined, and she toughened up. She couldn't even believe she actually had muscles!

Abby and Eric had a very strong bond. Daley swore she had seen them kiss once or twice. It got very mysterious when they ran off into the forest together. Work for them had worn off too. Eric didn't do anything anymore, like he did anything before. It was either he sat around and ate; he would sleep, or go with Abby. He didn't look depressed, though. Or happy, for matter. He was almost invisible. And Abby just took up space. She ate everything! She would go out into the forest alone, and come back with firewood, but that was only once or twice. Abby mostly cried in the forest, depressed because the whole world fell apart for her. The forest was so rough, and her ankle never got better, so she just limped. What she went through in that forest? No one knew.

But no one knew how much pain everyone felt when Jackson didn't return with the others.


	2. The Return

Daley walked up to Taylor at the fire pit, where she was throwing a pile of firewood into the flames, watching the ashes of the wood form. Daley sat down on the log next to her and examined the fire. "Nice job Taylor." She patted her on the back.

"Thanks," Taylor replied softly. It had been pretty quiet lately. The sun was shining down harshly, and the ocean current was rough as it came up to the shore.

Lex was sitting on the top of the plane, playing with his sister's Ipod. The radio connection was wiped it out in the storm. Lex didn't have a hard time handling the group's separation. He knew from the day they crashed that it was going to be a horrible adventure. _Everyone's personality is completely different, _he thought, _no one is ever going to be able to work together. _And he was right. Lex was fine, and content with less noise, and just being with his sister. But 3 months of nothing started to make him restless, just like everyone else.

"Hey, Daley?" Taylor said. Her voice was hoarse and sounded depressed.

"Hey Taylor. You okay?"

"Do you think they are ever coming back?"

Daley shook her head. "I don't know, Taylor." She paused. "It's been a while."

"But Daley!" Tears started forming in her eyes. "What if they ran into an animal, or a storm like we did?"

"They are strong." Daley's voice cracked, "they'll find the others, and bring them back."

More tears formed in Taylor's eyes. "What if they aren't alive? They might be dead!" Taylor started sobbing into her hands, and Daley felt tears forming in _her _eyes.

_Dead, _Daley thought_, could they really be… dead? No! They're out there. _"Come on Taylor!" She started to cry, but only a few tears ran down her face. "Don't even think that they aren't alive!"

"But you don't know that!" Taylor said, wiping the tears from her face. "You don't."

"You're right. But we can't loose hope." Daley gave Taylor a reassuring hug, and patted her on the back. Taylor sniffled, and stopped crying.

"Thanks Daley," she sniffed, "thanks a lot." Taylor stood up and wiped her pants off. "I'm going to go over to the beach." She walked over slowly, staring at the spot where the others had disappeared as she walked by it. It was made of a tree that had bent into a curve, and had grown ivy and vines. It looked like a pathway to nothing, and into darkness. Taylor didn't know how rough the forest was, and she was scared for the other adventures. Like she said to Daley, _what if they didn't make it back? What if they were dead somewhere in the forest? They could be_ _out of food, water… _but she trailed off as she sat onto the hot sand, tucked her knees into her chest, and stared out at the horizon.

Daley was sitting at the fire, replacing Taylor. When she looked into the flames, Daley didn't see anything. Not rescue or home, family or friends. She just couldn't zone out like Taylor did at times. Daley couldn't relinquish the fact that they were stuck on the island. She needed to be _there _all the time. Going off wasn't her thing. Just then, a few joyful cheers rang through the camp site and jungle. Nathan crashed through the trees, and revealed a heaping sack of bananas, papayas, kiwis, limes, and other delicious fruit. Plus, he had 6 coconuts in his arms. Nathan cheered again, and pumped his arm into the air. "Look at all this fruit!" He cheered, running up to the fire pit to greet Daley, who was grinning furiously. Nathan was jogging up a few feet to the fire pit, when he froze, dead in his tracks. Nathan's law dropped, and so did all the coconuts in his arms.

"Guess whose back!" An unfamiliar voice said that. _I swore that sounded like—_

"ERIC!" Nathan yelled, and ran over to him, giving him a hug.

"I can't believe your back!" he cheered. Just then, Abby and Melissa appeared out of the forest. Lex, Taylor and Daley ran over.

Daley held her arms out welcomingly. Everyone swarmed them with hugs, and clapping. Then the questions started pouring out.

"You're back!"

"Where have you been?"

"Did you find the others?"

Then a question that wasn't stupid was finally said.

"Where's Jackson?" Nathan asked with a sharp fear in his voice. Tears started pouring down Melissa face.

"Where's Jackson?" Nathan repeated. "Where?" He yelled.

I don't really like this chapter, but I have to put it in.

Review please!


	3. Pain

When Melissa started crying, Nathan knew something was horribly, horribly wrong. He felt something inside of him completely die. He wasn't the only one who knew though. Daley had put her hand over her mouth, and her eyes were closed, to prevent any showing tears. Lex wasn't stupid either. He stumbled backwards, and started murmuring, "no," to himself over and over again.

Taylor took a step forward, "where is he?" She asked quietly, a slight and utter fear in her voice as she asked.

Eric had his arms around Abby in a hug, and she was crying into his chest. Abby didn't know Taylor was that stupid! Her head turned out of Eric's chest and she said, "He's gone!" She cried. "Where do you think he is?" Abby then continued to snuggle up in Eric's chest, and more tears were soaking his shirt up.

Taylor practically dropped to her knees. "Gone," she whispered to herself, "Gone?"

Melissa was sobbing into her hands, and her whole body seemed to be shaking. "He's gone," she shouted in tears, her whole face a deep red. "We don't know where he is!" And with that she ran back into the forest, sand and dirt crumbling under her feet.

"Listen guys," Eric spoke up, "we've been in the forest for 3 months. I'm tired and hungry," he said, running a hand through his hair, "let's get something to eat and I'll tell you what happened later." The group nodded through their tears and frustration, and Abby, still in Eric's arms, walked with him up to the camp site.

The rest of the group scattered around, trying to take in the fact that Jackson was gone.

Lex slowly walked over to the plane, and carefully gripped the wing, and swung himself up to the top, to fix Daley's Ipod. Jackson was the only one who really understood Lex. Everyone thought of him as the little braniac kid. But Jackson actually listened to his ideas. He listened to _him_, really. Lex knew Jackson held the group together. He stopped the arguing, and brought a sense of life when he played the guitar. What was Lex going to do without him? He got angry, and started hitting the Ipod onto the plane, until the bottom chipped, and he threw it on the sand, and then he couldn't take it. He lied down in a beetle position, held his knees to his chest and cried his little heart out.

**FLGHT29DWN**

Eric and Abby were sitting on a log at the fire pit, warming themselves up with flames of the fire. Eric had his arm around her, and Abby was resting her head on his shoulder. Eric took a bite out of his papaya and said, "Do you think we _really_ should tell them?"

"I don't know." Abby shook her head. "It would probably kill them all together."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. But they are going to want to know what happened. They would want to know no matter who it is." Eric took another bite out of his fruit.

Abby looked up at Eric and said, "Maybe we should tell them the whole experience. Not just what happened to Jackson?"

Eric looked down at her, "that sounds good to me." He paused. "How do we do that?"

"Simple. We just explain what happened from the time we left to the time we get back. I'll tell some of it, and you can tell some of it."

"Wait." Eric whispered, "what about Melissa? She won't want them to know what happened, will she?"

"We'll tell it anyways. Melissa will be in the forest crying like her pathetic self the whole time anyways."

"Okay, sounds good."

Eric kissed Abby on the forehead and they continued watching the fire.

**FLGHT29DWN**

Daley was sitting on the beach, watching the sky turn multiple colors as the sun when down. Her face was tear stained, and her eyes were red. Daley knew she needed Jackson in the group. He was the strong and brave one. Who else was going to catch the fish for them, or stop them from fighting like idiots? Who besides Jackson is going to do the selfless jobs and things that no one else wants do? Someone needs to protect them. Beside all that, Daley knew if someone had already died, or so she thought, then were the rest of them going to survive?

Just then, Nathan plopped down on the shore next to her. She was still watching the sunset, and she jumped when he started talking. "Hey." He noticed her tear stained face. "You okay?" He asked, concerned.

Daley's voice turned bitter, and she said, "Do you think I'm okay?" with a harsh tone.

"Whoa," Nathan said, holding his arms up, "don't get mad at me. I'm just asking."

"Yeah, well, I'm fine."

"I don't think your fine Daley." He said, his voice getting tense. "You do know it isn't good to keep your emotions all bottled up, right? It helps to talk."

Daley nodded, and softened up a bit. "It's just," she paused, trying to get the right words, "I mean, we lost a member of the group."

"I know, Daley, and it's hard on all of us." He said reassuringly.

"No, Nathan, we lost someone today. We're falling apart." A tear slipped down her cheek. "Is this the end for us?"

"Daley, don't think like that. We are going to get rescued."

For the first time, she actually turned to look at him. "That is what we said last month, and the month before that. It's been 4 months. _4 months! _Doesn't that tell you anything?"

"Yes." Nathan said, trying to bear with Daley. "It means that rescue will come soon."

"No! It doesn't! It means that we've been here too long. We just lost someone Nathan." He voice hardened. "Didn't you ever think we'll probably stay here forever, and slowly we'll run out of food, and water, then we'll die off one by one?"

"Daley!" Nathan jumped up. "What are you talking about?" He stared at her darkly. "We aren't going to die!" He yelled. "We're going to get off this island." He started walking away, and turned his head to say, "Don't EVER think those thoughts! Ever!" And he jogged off, shaking his head madly. Daley put her head in her hands. Now she knew she was crazy.

Taylor was sitting in a tree, about 6 feet off the ground. She climbed it herself, surprisingly. The tree was a dark maple with a twisted trunk, and branches coming out of every direction. She swung her legs back and forth, trying to recover from the morning. Taylor didn't actually cry, she just felt her stomach flip, and she couldn't help but loose her balance from the shocking news. Taylor didn't really care who didn't come back, or who was lost or whatever. She just wanted to get off the island and see her family. So what, she talked with Jackson a lot, and flirted with him once or twice? Taylor didn't really care. When she got home she couldn't be seen with a criminal mastermind, as she put it. The sun was just lowering below the horizon, and Taylor closed her eyes to feel the breeze and faint mist of ocean water against her face.

**FLGHT29DWN**

Melissa was somewhere deep in the forest. It was getting dark, too dark to be able to see. Once the news was told, she didn't stop crying. She charged into the forest until her lungs were ready to burst, and she couldn't breathe anymore. She didn't check where she was going, or even take a second to think what she was doing. By then Melissa had collapsed on the forest floor. She cried even more after that. No one knew how hard it was for her. The person she _loved_ was gone. Crying was all she could do.

**FLGHT29DWN**

When Nathan was walking back up to camp, he spotted Lex in his beetle position. His eyes widened, and he ran up to him. "Lex," Nathan heard his crying. "Lex, Lex, its okay." He jumped up onto the plane, and rolled Lex over. His face was covered in tears, and he was still crying. Nathan sat him up, and gave him a hug. "It's okay Lex."

"No! No! No! It's not!" He cried, pushing Nathan away. "Jackson's gone. He's gone."

Nathan hugged him tighter. "I know he is. But, Lex," He stared straight into his face, "but you got to be strong. Come on, it's going to be alright."

"No! It's not!" Lex yelled, and crawled to the other side of the plane to continue crying. Nathan was left on the top of the plane, confused and hurt.

When it was getting too dark, Abby and Eric crawled into the tent, and fell asleep over everyone's sleeping bags.

Before they were completely asleep, Eric told Abby, "We will tell them in the morning." He yawned. "The time _defiantly_ isn't right."

Oh, cliffhanger. Can you stand it?

Review please.


	4. How it all began

Eric woke up first out of the rest of the group. He was used to it because they always woke up early to cover as much land as possible when they were out in the jungle.

_Everyone else must have come into the tent after I fell asleep. _He thought.

He stood up slowly, pushing Abby's arm off of his chest, and unzipped the tent flap. He was doing well not waking anyone up until his foot hit one of the tent poles. He heard loud snap, and then 2 more loud noises and the whole tent had collapsed on the other castaways.

"Oh, shoot!" He whispered, and then the morning had started.

Everyone started yelling and coming out of the tent.

"Eric!" Taylor yelled. "Why'd you have to do that?"

Then Daley, Lex, Nathan, and Abby came out and just shot him tired glances and walked over to the fire pit.

After everyone had woken up, and got their fill on fruit, Daley peered up and looked around. "Wait, where's Melissa?"

Abby frowned. "Last time I saw her she ran into the forest. But who really cares? We're safe, aren't we?"

"Come on, Abby, can't you be a _little _more considerate?" Nathan asked.

Daley started to raise her voice. "Yea, don't you care about anyone but yourself? We would go looking if you disappeared."

"We'd go look for anyone." Lex stated.

"_Anyone_?" Abby said. "How come you didn't go search for Jackson then?"

The whole group fell silent.

After a while, Nathan spoke up. "What happened out there? Did you find anything?"

Eric and Abby exchanged glances. "I don't think you're ready for the story yet." Eric joked, "Especially after yesterday's performance." He laughed lightly.

"Come on, Eric!" Taylor yelled, "What were we supposed to do?"

Before he could say anything Abby cut him off. "Get over it. Move on. We did." She looked around. "Well, most of us did anyways."

"Hey!" Nathan yelled. "It's probably harder on Melissa than any of us!"

"I think it was hard on everyone!" Abby yelled back. "And we all cried! But I didn't see anyone besides her go off into the forest! We were bound to lose someone!"

Then Daley started up. "Losing someone was not the deal! You were supposed to stay safe and stick together!"

"If you were there you would've known it wasn't that easy!" Eric screamed. "Now lighten up!"

Daley lowered her voice. "Exactly why you should tell us what happened."

Abby glared fiercely at Daley. "Fine, but give us an hour."

"Come on!" Taylor protested.

"Taylor," Daley said sternly, "do not say anything."

And the group separated from the pit.

**FLGHT29DWN**

Taylor was sitting on the beach with her knees tucked up to her chest.

"Hey Taylor," Daley said with a hoarse voice.

"Hi Daley," she replied.

"You okay?"

"Not really. Breakfast was rough."

"Yea," she let out a laugh, "tell me about it."

"I miss Jackson already. It's only been two days, but I miss him. He used to play me songs on the guitar," she smiled a bit. "I never told anyone that, but they were really nice songs. Now I'm really confused about my feelings. Yesterday I didn't think I would," she paused, "actually, I didn't care. But now I miss him."

Tears were welling up in Daley's eyes. "I probably don't miss him as much as you, Taylor, but we all do," Daley looked out toward the ocean.

"I know that, but my hearts breaking here, and I don't even know what happened. I want to hear one more song," a tear slipped down her cheek, "I want to hear his voice," she swallowed hard, "just one more time."

"One more time..." Daley repeated her words.

**FLGHT29DWN**

Eric and Abby were out in the forest, collecting firewood. "So, how are we going to tell them?" Abby asked.

"We could lie."

"Eric!" She smiled and hit him on the arm.

"What! What's wrong with that?"

"We have to tell them the truth. It's only fair."

"Maybe we'll get off working. Have you noticed?" He chuckled, "we're the only ones working here!"

"They still deserve to know what happened."

"Why? I mean, we had to see him-- you know, so it should be the hardest on us."

"Everyone back at camp just has problems." She made a bad imitation of them. "It's all about me. I haven't been out in the forest starving; I've been at paradise eating fruit, getting to swim in the ocean, drinking fresh water." She started getting angry, "but when they find out someone is gone, _they _get all emotional. Well it wasn't hard for them at all!"

"Abby!" Eric put his hand on her shoulder. "Relax."

She slapped his hand away. "No! I have every right to be angry!"

"So do I. But I'm not. God, I get all the stress on my shoulders, all the grief and heavy work, and then I go out in the forest and practically starve too, then come back and get even more work! But I'm not angry. Am I? So relax!"

Abby shot him an angry look. "Fine," she grumbled, "now how do we tell them?"

"Easy. We tell them from the beginning. But make sure we leave out any parts of when we had any good times, and anything bad—,"

She cut him off. "We made it sound as worse as possible. Perfect." She grinned.

"You're so cute when you're angry." He smiled, and they grabbed each others hands and walked back to the camp looking like the happiest people on earth.

When Eric and Abby arrived at the fire pit, everyone was looking upset, especially Nathan, who was normally fine.

"What's your problem?" Eric asked.

"Melissa came back. That's my problem. And you won't tell us what happened, so we can't help her. So you better sit down, and start talking. Now." He jabbed a finger at his chest.

"We'll tell it now. Get the others." Abby ordered.

**FLGHT29DWN**

When everyone was at the fire pit, Abby started speaking.

"Obviously, I can't tell you what happened everyday for four months when we were out in the forest," she started, "but I'll let you know as much as I can. Understand?"

They all nodded in agreement.

"We set out along the shore for a while, but we were running out of water pretty quick, so we took a break to set up camp, while Melissa and," she hesitated to say his name, "Jackson, went to get more water."

(A.N: The story goes into flashback mode right now)

'We need to set up camp soon, and get more water.' Abby announced.

'Who put you in charge?' Eric asked.

'No one, but it's a good idea.'

'She's right,' Melissa said.

So Melissa and Jackson headed into the forest for more water, while Eric and I set up the tent.

'How are we supposed to do this? Do you have directions or anything?'

'It's not that hard Eric,' Abby laughed.

'Then you do it! I have no idea!' He threw a pole down on the sand.

'What's making you so angry? You could be a little more helpful. You did know you would have to do work when you left, right?'

'I just think we should be doing something more productive than putting up a tent.'

'Just,' she paused and looked around at everything, 'put out the sleeping bags and unpack some stuff.'

**FLGHT29DWN**

'Why are we doing this again?' Melissa asked Jackson.

'What do you mean?'

'Should we really have gone out? Was this smart?'

'I can't say it was smart,' he jumped over a large branch, 'but we needed to do something. Who knew if we were ever going to get rescued doing nothing?'

'I guess so,' she picked up a coconut, 'I just hope we get through this okay.'

'We'll be fine, Mel,' he tossed a fruit up in his hand, 'trust me on this one.'

'Okay. I trust you-!' But before she could finish her sentence she tripped on a root and went tumbling down on the ground.

'Woah, Mel!' Jackson dropped all his fruit and ran over to her. 'Are you okay?'

'Yeah, I think I'm fine.' She held her hand out. 'Help me up.'

He grabbed her hand and pulled her up. 'Thanks.'

'No problem.' They brought their faces closer and closer together until they were an inch apart, but Jackson pulled away, and he gathered all the dropped fruit and they walked back silently.

**FLGHTDWN29**

Back at camp, the tent was set up, and night was falling. They ate their fruit quietly, until Abby started to talk. 'I don't want to order you guys around, or seem like boss, but we need to wake up early tomorrow if we want to cover a decent amount of ground. We did okay today, but we won't make it very far without water, so we need to collect a lot of that tomorrow morning too.'

'Jeez, and you don't want to sound like the boss?' Eric protested.

'Sorry, I just think we need to cover as much land as possible.'

'She's right, Eric.'

'Again,' he threw his hands up.

'What do you expect us to do Eric?' Jackson asked. 'Sit here and do nothing? The whole point of coming out here was to find the others, not argue more.'

'Whatever,' he said, and headed into the tent, followed by everyone else.

------

That's the end for now! So sorry it took me so long to update!

I know you all want to know what happened to Jackson, and you'll just have to wait!

Review Please. 


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